3 Responses

1. Desmodus Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   (Mild spoilers below)

   As the title suggests, this arc is essentially a treasure hunt. After a brief setup mission in the Midnighter’s Club, each remaining mission in the arc consists of tracking down one of the four treasures of the title. Unfortunately, many of the villain groups we know and love are after the same items, with the obvious consequences. The hero must fight off troops from Arachnos, Nemesis, and the Red Caps, as well as a handful of Crey and Council. The variety helps make up for the fact that we’re largely facing standard units, that we’ve dealt with so many times by now.

   The new units include the “mysterious man” archvillain wizard plotting the whole thing, and a recurring Arachnos-associated boss named the Undercover Librarian. The latter is a psionic “mastermind” who summons literary villains such as Long John Silver and Mr. Hyde through the clever use of boss fight dialog and triggered ambushes. I love the concept of the Librarian, and the use of ambushes to represent custom henchmen is a great idea I may steal for future arcs. However, I didn’t really feel he was especially connected to the main plot. In some ways, I’d prefer to see this character and his faction get their own arc, and have the custom critter space used for something more tightly tied to the Celtic mythology, or at least more clearly connected to their respective villain groups.

   The Librarian is also related to another issue; this is not an easy arc. Including his appearances, I count five “boss fights” (with tough bosses-or-better on level 2 or above) with substantial ambushes midfight. If you’re looking for a challenge, this is great. If you’re running a mid-level squishy, take the designer’s notes seriously, and consider running on a different character, at a higher level, or at least with a good load of inspirations.

   My only other complaint is that missions 2, 3, and 4 all require returning to the entrance - one escort, and two mandatory spawned bosses at the front. One is fine, two might be acceptable, but I found three in a row a bit annoying.

   Nonetheless, this is a well-written and polished arc. The dialog is good, including at least one clever reference to a certain well-known AE arc. If you’re looking for a fairly challenging arc with a historical/mythological feel, the Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan is an excellent choice.

   Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 9:06 pm

2. cruise Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   Well written, and blended into established CoH lore. There are some nice touches on the dialog, and the variety of enemies hides the rather more banal nature of the actual missions well enough.

   The bosses are a tough fight, though in all but one instance there is help for defeating them (even if help does tend to get itself killed rather quickly in said boss fights).

   Overall, I found the challenge about right, though that is on a semi-IO’d 50 regen scrapper, so adjust accordingly. I didn’t mind the backtracking since the maps are all of a reasonable size, and thus the time it takes is minimal, though ADD afflicted teams might struggle.

   Posted on May 17th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

3. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF.

   Playing on a low-40s DB/fire brute, on diff 2, since Mission Engineer ain’t gonna earn itself.

   —

   Hey, Monty! How are things with your BFF Imperious?

   The Midnight Club is under attack. Again. Maybe this is why you kept your secret society secret, amirite?

   I do not much like the Midnight Club map. There is about enough space to stretch out.

   Nice inclusion of two lesser-seen hero mystic allies, but Mr Mystery there rages up and one-shots them with Footstomp. There’s really nowhere to run to here, but blessedly all it takes is a little scratch before he’s out the door in a thoroughly credible escape.

   Hmm. Okay, the parchment’s a little ambiguous. Maybe give it some minor detail identifying it as being from the Midnight Squad. “Embossed with the swords-and-moon seal of the Midnight Squad”, perhaps? Also it doesn’t necessarily follow he was after them - there are a whole ton of random books around the Midnight Squad HQ. Maybe he’s marked it up a little.

   —

   Loot Item 1 - a cauldron of super-healing. I guess the Circle have been using it to marinate the green crystals.

   Arachnos in Oranbega. Why are there Arachnos in Oranbega?

   No, seriously. A patrol or something would help answer this.

   Ah, a battle. …you should know that battles can start without heroes present, so any battle dialogue that assumes the player’s presence is just kinda off.

   Hmm. Yes, that isn’t what I was expecting from the cauldron. I head back to the entrance to take out the agent.

   Ah, a custom villain. Probably a mastermind from the descriptions. Couple little things: he’s got a “sudden” when he should have a “suddenly”, and there should probably be a colon or an emdash (–) in front of that giant “whether” list of origins, since it’s a dependent clause for the previous sentence.

   …yeah. Lieutenants and above can perma-apply deceive, and this guy can stack it through a single break free. This fight just became about whether I have enough BFs to double-stack and put out the damage needed to take him down.

   And the answer going into the mission was “hell no”. Time to stock up….oh, he’s illusion/mind control so he has the super-accurate in addition to the long-lasting confuse. That’s just wonderful.

   His buddies are extremely sensible with their powers, but Dr. “Do you like my garden? It’s made of POISON!” Rappaccini isn’t the big name that Hyde and Long John are, and could stand with a little more description.

   …um, Baron Zoria? Zoria was an ignorant nobleman. Maybe the dude in Zoria’s body said that, but the Circle wouldn’t call him Zoria. “a prophecy from the days of Baron Zoria” might work. Or just faceroll for a Circle name, they seem disposed to Xs.

   Still, nice to know they’ll be standing down. …but if Montague knew about this prophecy, why didn’t HE say something? To me? In case some Circle tried to ventilate me?

   —

   Ah, Solais. You tore through the future of Dracula’s castle inside an eclipse like a holy gatling blade. I’ll remember our time together fondly.

   ROBOTS (jaegers) INTERROGATING ROBOTS (zeniths)! (not that you planned this, but.)

   Man, you know what’s great? An open-world map with Nemesis snipers on every corner. And by “great” I mean “how much chain aggro can one man endure”?

   Know what else is great? Trying to escort someone through essentially-randomly-appearing clouds of Nemesis gas shot by snipers that triggers severe avoidance behavior.

   Know what ELSE is great? Trying to figure out where to stand in an outdoor map for the escort to count.

   Either make this a Crey lab under crazy simultaneous invasion or turn the mission into “find ally” with a triggered, say, boss fight on rescue.

   —

   Okay, Arachnos agents picked something up. That works, that’s the kind of thing they do, and I get to come out in Aeon University Square and go break things.

   Oh, a teleport link. That works.

   Geez, it’s Mr. I Can Confuse You Twice again. Okay, down again - oh, a new literary figure. Hmm. Moriarity really needs to be using the old-school flintlocks to pistol with.

   Treasure grabbed, just one Fiend between me and daylight. Pity I wasted most of my insps on Confuse Boy. Ah well, round 2 he goes down.

   So… I guess this guy like made a copy of the thing he dropped so he had the Midnight Squad’s intel to sell to other people?

   —

   …um. If the stone of destiny cries out when the next ruler of Ireland touches it, what terrible thing can this guy do to it? I mean, if it declares him as king then he’s supposed to be king anyway, and if he’s not it won’t work.

   I mean, one of the most prominent legends about it is Cu Chulainn being pissed it wouldn’t recognize his protege and smashing the hell out of it, as you do.

   Ah well, this is where the railroad lets off, so.

   …why am I expecting to see Mr. Rogers in a bloodstained sweater? Ah well, it’ll pass.

   Okay, so I’m apparently destined for Ireland. Um. Alright. I guess? I hope this is, like, short-term punch-the-guy-in-the-next-room destiny.

   William isn’t pleased about it. He seems to have a very loose grasp on the idea of destiny in the first place, though. (and once again he pretty much OHKs the help with a rage footstomp) I decide to forgo my usual strategy (hide and wait) and just eat like four oranges and purples off the get-go, then rushdown.

   I have to question Montague’s conclusions here. We’ve learned pretty much jack about the Red Caps since they only featured in about half the arc and not as really major players. I mean, my explanation of the whole thing is: William de Wossname had a Red Cap familiar, and when he walked out of the fairy mists he found the guy was a big boss of the red caps (not THE big boss) and so he had an army of tiny men.

   I don’t see any of the big plans or contingencies that Montague alludes to here.

   —

   Storyline - ***. There’s just too much I’m apparently missing out on - the presence at all of some nefarious scheme besides “find stone, be king” chief among them. Also, if this guy dropped the Midnight Squad’s intel, what did he sell to the other factions? Also also, exactly how was he planning to use the one artifact that was not a tool but apparently had a mind of its own?

   Design - ****. The custom enemies (mostly literary figures) look nice and generally have sound thematic powers, the only sore spot being ill/mind guy. I’d want a little more chatter in the Oranbega mission by the Arachnos, other than that one fight going on.

   Gameplay - **. Fights with ill/mind guy devolve into “break frees = win, no break frees = wait to die”. The main AV (EB for me) takes out my supposed help in one shot and without popping inspirations like they’re addictive I don’t fare much better. And then there was the part where I escorted somebody through city streets full of Nemesis snipers that shoot +1 Clouds of Extreme Ally Avoidance.

   Detail - ****. Aside from that modest request for another line in Rappacini’s description, there’s nothing really missing here, and the errors are few and far between, certainly not glaring.

   Overall - ***. A competently constructed and debugged mission brought down by a storyline with a lot of open questions, and some rather frustrating missions and fights.

   Posted on May 28th, 2009 at 11:06 pm